56s ENG 
ance. The barons of thefe times were ready enough to 
fwear whatever the monarch commanded; but, it feems, 
they obferved it no longer than while it fuited their own 
interefted views. Henry did not long furvive thefe en¬ 
deavours to fecure the fucceflion in his family. He was 
feized with a fudden indifpofition at St. Denis, in Nor¬ 
mandy, from eating too plentifully of lampreys; this 
brought on his death, Dec. i, 1135, > n the fixty-feventh 
year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign, leaving, 
by will, his daughter Matilda heirefs of all his dominions. 
This prince was one of the mod accomplifhed that has 
filled the Englith throne; and poffeffed all the qualities 
both of body and mind, natural and acquired, which 
could fit him for the high ftatlon to which he attained : 
his perfon was manly ; his countenance engaging ; his 
eyes clear, ferene, and penetrating. The affability of 
his addrefs encouraged thofe who might be overawed by 
the fenfe of his dignity or hiswifdom; and though he 
often indulged his facetious humour, he knew how to 
temper it with difcretion, and ever kept at a diftance 
from all indecent familiarities with his courtiers. His 
fuperior eloquence and judgment would have given him 
an afcendant, even if he had been born in a private fta- 
tion; and his perfonal bravery would have procured him 
refpect, even though it had been let's fupported by art 
and policy. By his great progrels in literature, he ac¬ 
quired the name of Bcauclerc, or the Scholar; but his ap¬ 
plication to fedentary purfuits abated nothing of the acti¬ 
vity and vigilance of his government: and, though the 
learning of that age was better fitted to corrupt than im¬ 
prove the underftanding, his natural good fenfe preferved it- 
fe If untainted both from the pedantry and fnperftition which 
were then fo prevalent among men of letters. His tem- 
• pier was very fufceptible of the fentiments as well of 
friendfliip as of refentment; and his ambition, though 
high, might be efteemed moderate, had not his conduct 
towards his brother (hewed, that he was too much dif- 
pofed to facrifice to it all the maxims of juftice and equity. 
As every expedient had been ufed during the life of 
Henry to fix the fucceflion in his family, he, among others, 
thought that the aggrandifing his neared relations would 
not be an impolitic flep. He only dreaded the defignsof 
Robert and his adherents, no way miflrufling any attempts 
from anotlr.r quarter. With thefe views, he was very 
liberal in heaping favours upon the children of his After 
Adela, who had been married to the count of Blois. He 
thought they would be the flronged fafeguard to protect 
him front the afpiring attempts of his brother, or his pol- 
terity; and he was refolved to load them with favours, 
as being too far removed from the crown to entertain any 
hopes of fucceeding in their defigns to obtain it. In pur- 
fuance of this plan, he had, fome years before his death, 
invited Stephen and Henry, the two younged of his filler’s 
foils, into England, and received them with great honour 
and edeem. Thinking he could never do too much to 
fecure their affections, he married Stephen to the daugh¬ 
ter and heirefs of Eufface count of Boulogne, who brought 
him an immenfe fortune. He conferred on him the great 
edates forfeited by Robert Mallet in England, and by the 
earl of Mortaigne in Normandy. Nor was Stephen’s bro¬ 
ther Henry without his (hare in the king’s liberalities. 
He was created abbot of Glaflonbury, and bifhop of Win- 
ehefler; fo that the two brothers were thus become by 
far the mod opulent perfonages in the kingdom. 
Such great riches, fo much power, and the confciouf- 
nefs of abilities, w ere the firft incentives to Stephen’s am¬ 
bition. Placed at no great didance from the throne by 
birth, and perceiving the fuccefs of his uncle’s ufurpa- 
tion, he refolved to run the fame career, and firike for 
the crown. For this purpofe, even during the king’s life¬ 
time, he ufed all his arts to procure popularity, and to 
cultivate the affections of the Englifh nobility. By his 
bravery, activity, and vigour, he acquired the elteem of 
the barons; by his genercfity and familiar addrefs, he 
obtained the regard of the people. No fooner, therefore. 
LAND. 
was the king known to be dead, than Stephen, confciou* 
of his own influence, refolved to fecure to himfelf the pof- 
feflion of what he fo long defired. He hadened from Nor¬ 
mandy, where he then was, and, fetting fail for England, 
landed at Dover. But there the garrifon fhut their gates 
againd him. Front thence he went to Canterbury, where 
he was treated with dntilar difrefpect; till, pading on, 
he arrived at London, where he was indantly fainted king 
by all the lower ranks of the people. Being thus fecure 
of the populace, his next object was to gain over the 
clergy; and for that purpofe, his brother, the bidtop of 
Wincheder, exerted all his influence. The archbifhop 
of Canterbury, as he had taken the oaths of allegiance to 
Matilda, feemed for a while the mod adverfe ; but Hugh 
Bigod, deward of the houfehold, averring, upon oath, 
that the late king had expreffed his intentions to make 
Stephen his heir, the archbidiop anointed him without 
further fcruple. Thus was Stephen made king, by one 
of thofe fpeedy revolutions which ever mark the inftabi- 
lity of a date in which they are cudomary. The people 
acquiefced in his claims from his popularity; the clergy 
allowed them, being influenced by the intrigues of his 
brother ; and the nobility acknowledged a king, from the 
weaknefs of whole title they might hope to derive power 
to themfelves. 
The firft aCts of an ufurper are always popular. Ste¬ 
phen, in order to fecure his cindable throne, paffed a 
charter, granting feveral privileges to the different orders 
of the date. To,the nobility, a permiflion to hunt in the 
royal forefls; to the clergy, a fpeedy fucceflion to all va¬ 
cant benefices; and to the people, a re flora t ion of the 
laws of Edward the Confelfor. To fix himfelf dill more 
fecurely, he took poffeffion of the royal treafures at Win- 
chefter, and caufed his title to be ratified by the pope, 
with a part of the money. A crown thus obtained, was 
to'be kept only by repeated conceflions. The nobility 
and the clergy, in proportion as they were indulged in 
one demand, foon found out others. The barons, in re¬ 
turn for their fubmiffion, required the right of fortifying 
their cadles, and putting themfelves in a poflure of de¬ 
fence ; nor could the king refufe his confent to fuch ex¬ 
orbitant demands, becaufe their oppofition might be fa¬ 
tal. The clergy imitated the fame pernicious example; 
and, in a fhort time, all England was filled with thefe in¬ 
dependent fortreffes, which the noblemen garrifoned with 
their own vaffals, or with mercenaries from the conti¬ 
nent: nothing could exceed the mifery which the king¬ 
dom prefented. Unbounded rapine was exercifed upon 
the people for the maintenance of thofe troops; the pri¬ 
vate animofities of the nobility were productive of wars 
in every quarter; and the whole country prefented a 
feene of petty tyranny and hofiile preparation. It was m 
vain that a victory gained by the king over the Scots at 
Northallerton, A.D. 1138, promifed to allay the mur¬ 
murs of the people: their miferies were rifen to too great 
a height for fuch brilliant fucceffes to difle or remove. 
Not only real, but imaginary, grievances were added, to 
raife the difeontents of the people, and fill the country 
with complaints againd government, The clergy, whofe 
power had been ingrafted on the ruins of the regal autho¬ 
rity, continued, in imitation of the lay-barons, to ereCt 
cadles, and entertain garrifons, feniible that their facred 
pretenfions would be more implicitly obeyed when their 
temporal power was fufficient to enforce them. Stephen, 
who now perceived the mifehiefs attending thefe internal 
citadels, refolved to begin with dedroying thofe of the 
clergy, whofe profeflion feemed averfe to the duties of 
war. Embracing, therefore, the confequences of a fray, 
which had rifen between the vaffals of the bifhop of Salif- 
bury and thofe of the earl of Bretagne, he feized that 
prelate, and obliged both him and the bilhop of Lincoln 
to deliver up their cadles which they had lately fortified. 
This the whole body of the clergy conlidered as a breach 
of that charter which he had granted upon his acceffion ; 
they loudly murmured at this infraction; and even the 
bifhop 
